Hoong
Hei Goon, which is a more
popular pronounciation in Cantonese than the Mandarin pronounciation of Hung
Xi Guan, was a great Southern Shaolin master with far-reaching influence on
martial arts of the world today. He is often described as the founder of Hoong
Ka (Hung Gar) Kungfu. Actually he did not invent Hoong Ka Kungfu, he passed on
to posterity what he had learned from his master. For a few generations after
him the style of kungfu he passed down was still called Shaolin, although the
term "Hoong Ka" which means "Hoong Family" was also used. It
is only in modern times that the term "Hoong Ka Kungfu" has become
popular.

Born in Huaxian
in Guangdong (=Kwantung). He was believed to be of distant royal ancestry, one
of his forefathers being Prince Liang (personal name: Zhu Wenzhong), the
fifteenth son of the Ming Emperor Chong Zhen. (After the fall of the Ming
Dynasty, Zhu changed his name to 'Hong' as a tribute to the Qing Emperor Hong Wu
- to avoid persecution from the new Qing authorities.)

Hoong Hei Goon was a distinguished
disciple of the Venerable Chee Seen, the abbot of the southern Shaolin Monastery
in Fujian Province, and the First Patriarch of Southern Shaolin Kungfu. "Che
Seen", or Zhi Zhan in Mandarin, means "Extreme Kindness".

After the burning of the monastery,
Hoong Hei Goon escaped to Guangdong Province, and established a school teaching
Southern Shaolin Kungfu.

His constant
flight from the Qing authorities eventually brought him to Hauxian, where he
married a woman named Liu Yingchun and had one son, Hong Wenting. Apart from
instructing his own son in martial arts, he also took Luo Xiaojuan, Zhou Renjie
and Hu Zhibiao (the son of Hu Huiqian) as his students. When his wife died, he
remarried;

He married a lady kungfu master called Fong Chet Leong
who specialized in the Crane style. Hoong Hei Goon incorporated the Crane style
of his wife into his Tiger style, resulting in the famous Tiger-Crane Set of
Hoong Ka Kungfu.

(Fang
Yongchun was born in Zhaoxing in Guangdong. She is not identical with the nun
Yongchun, referred to as 'The Third Lady of Yongchun' (Cant. Wing Chun), nor
identical with Fang Qiniang, who founded the White Crane Fist. Crane techniques
were already part of the Shaolin Five Animal Fist that Hong Xiguan learned in
the Shaolin Monastery in Fujian.)

Probably the most well known Hoong Ka,
or Hung Gar, Kungfu today, the style one frequently sees in Hong Kong movies
depicting Shaolin heros, comes from the lineage of the legendary southern
Shaolin hero named Wong Fei Hoong. It is illuminating that Wong Fei Hoong was
not descended directly from Hoong Hei Goon, but from his junior classmate Lok Ah
Choy.

Legend has it that Hong lived to the age of 93,
into the early years of Emperor Dao Guang (who acceded to the throne in 1821).
He died when taken unaware in a fight by a young girl, who used the Phoenix Eye
Fist (Fengyan Quan) manoeuvre against him. Apart from being a master of various
fist styles, Hong was also expert in the Shaolin Pole techniques.

Hong Xi Guan was supposedly the founder of Hong Quan (Hung Gar). Hong Xi Guan,
an 18th century kung fu exponent who devoted his life to developing kung fu, was
schooled by the Shaolin Abbot Gee-Sin and his future wife Fang Yung-chun. Hong
combined the best of the two instructor's methods to form Hong Quan, otherwise
known as Hong Jia (Hung Gar) Quan or the Hong Family Fist.

From Abbot Gee-Sin, he
absorbed the vigorous and strong hand techniques reminescent of the Tiger Style;
it's precise leaping and stepping, it's low kicks as well as the dynamic tension
exercises. From Fang Yung-chun, he learned the Crane Style of fighting, which
stressed one-legged stances, pecking, wing and beak attacks, and short and long
fist movements. Thus Hong Quan would be known as a combined tiger-crane style of
fighting.